| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 3626 |
| QUOTATION: | The opera isn’t over till the fat lady sings. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Anonymous.
A modern proverb along the lines of “don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” This form of words has no precise origin, though both Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (16th ed., 1992) and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (ed. John Simpson, 1982) state that the words were first recorded in Washington Post, June 13, 1978, said by sports commentator Dan Cook. Bartlett’s notes another version in Southern Words and Sayings (eds. Fabia Rue Smith and Charles Rayford Smith, 1976): “Church ain’t out till the fat lady sings.” |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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